Characters Wanted

Other than hockey, I don't watch a whole lot of television, but I do enjoy good action dramas that are smart, clever and entertaining. One of my favorite channels is USA Network. They have such great programs, like Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Psych, Royal Pain, White Collar and Monk. Plus, they air tons of NCIS reruns. 


A couple of things stand out about all of the shows listed above: the tone of the show and the strong characters. They are all smart shows. They don't talk down to their audience. On Psych, they poke fun of "The Mentalist" for stealing the premise of their show and always include a pineapple in the background during each show. They don't take themselves to seriously. The main characters are good people trying to do good things in their own way. Each new show follows the same formula but it never seems stale or recycled. The network knows exactly who their viewers are and what they want. And they deliver.


I ran across an article with the network president. See if you can take away any tidbits of advice to use for your own business.

Today when considering scripts, Hammer and her team ask a routinized series of questions: 

Does the show have a fun sensibility? Does it have a "blue sky" tone of hopefulness? Does it revolve around an "aspirational," if quirky, lead character with a moral and ethical center? 

Potential shows are scored based on how closely they match these dictates; only high scorers make it on air. Before Hammer's arrival, USA was the television equivalent of a potluck supper, a hodgepodge of reruns and castoffs. 

Driven by her unique show-selection technique—a process she refers to as the "brand filter"—USA has been transformed into a cohesive collection of character-driven shows that are resonating with viewers, and advertisers are in hot pursuit. 

"The goal was to take a large, broad-based network and make it an exclusive club by creating connective tissue," Hammer says, describing the bond between characters on the screen and an audience of individual characters watching at home. 

The USA tag line describes its strategy: "Characters Welcome."

So, what is your "brand filter"? If your business has a tagline, does it accurately describe your business strategy? Do you offer a potluck supper of services? Do you have a series of questions, or filters, you can run potential clients, projects or services through to keep you on track? If you were a television network president, what "shows" in your business would you cancel?